M&R Episode 088: Leon Logothetis host of the Netflix series The Kindness Diaries talks traveling around the world on kindness.

In Episode 88 I spoke with expat Leon Logothetis the host of the Netflix series The Kindness Diaries. He's been traveling the world documenting the kindness of others towards him to get from point A to point B. His message is simple...by asking for help and trying to connect with people they will open their hearts to you and help. Enjoy!

Show notes. The Kindness Diaries, Live Love Explore, Amazing Adventures Of A Nobody, The Mojo Diaries, One Republic (I lived), Support Misfits and Rejects on Patreon, Get a Misfits and Rejects T-shirt or Tank

Hello all you beautiful misfits and rejects out there

Thank you for joining me for another episode of misfits and rejects episode 88 with Leon Logothetis

He is the host of the Netflix documentary series the kindness diaries

And we had a rad conversation about his endeavors to get around the world solely on kindness

He's done multiple trips around the world

He's walked across America and he relies solely on the people's kindness that he encounters to either take him home

Feed him put gas in his motorcycle in his car

if he's driving and

Just kind of shows that the world is full of genuinely good people who are here to help and that's the message that I really

Like when I spotted him on Netflix and asked him to come on the show which he was kind enough to do

So I hope you get a lot of this episode because I think it's got a really rad message and please remember if you want

To support misfits and rejects you can do it on patreon patreon is a platform that allows

Fans to support content creators like myself through monthly donations and whatever you donate is

Very much appreciated and if you can't donate just sharing misfits and rejects with a friend is also greatly appreciated

So with that said sit back relax and enjoy this episode with Leon Logothetis

The host of the kindness diaries enjoy welcome to misfits and rejects a podcast about the lifestyle design of ex-patriots

travelers entrepreneurs and

Adventurers, I'm your host Chapin Krueger. Enjoy. I didn't fit in America

Cocaine there's just always too many guns and too many bad attitudes

I quit the limiting stories

Really try to overcome that fear

And right there for any of your listeners a lot of what I was to do in the rest of my life was formulated

But in fact, I just went and did it

Welcome to another episode of misfits and rejects today

I am joined by Leon Logothetis the host of the Netflix documentary series the kindness diaries

somebody who I just found on Netflix reached out to and he was kind enough to come on the podcast and

I'm really appreciate his time because I really connected with the message that he was sending through his series

you know that you can make your way around the world with no money and and

People will help you out and it's something that I did many years ago with my best friend

We hitchhiked around the world and and I really found the similar similar experiences happening to me in the same places that you did

Leon so that said Leon welcome to the show. Thanks very much for having me. Yeah, it's a pleasure, dude

And I'm I'm really interested in hearing more detailed more details about your experience because like I said in

2003 I hitchhiked around the world my friend and went through the same countries that you did, you know, Mongolia India

I know Mongolia was a different trip for you, but just found people were just

overwhelmingly kind and

Before we kind of start on your initial motivation for this

Can you just give the audience myself a little bit about your background and your upbringing?

Sure, so I used to actually I grew up in London

And I used to be a broker in London and you know on the outside I had everything

But on the inside I really had nothing and no one really knew that except except me

And I would go to work every day and feel disempowered and feel depressed and feel uninspired

Like I had no real sense of purpose

And I stumbled across the movie the motorcycle diaries, which I'm not sure if you've seen it

but it's a romanticized version of Che Guevara traveling around South America relying on kindness and

There was something profound to me about that because it's interesting his father wanted him to be a

doctor and

He just he didn't want to stay in Buenos Aires. He wanted to go out and see the world

So it kind of pushed me and nudged me towards doing something similar

And that's really how it all began

Can we talk about that because that's a giant step going from?

Being a broker to giving it all up to start

I mean, what was your initial thought of what you were going to start when you did decide to quit your job?

Well, there's a long version of the story and there's a shorter version of the story I'm happy if you give me either one did

Look, you know, I think for me I was in so much pain

Emotionally that the pain got to the point where it pushed me to change everything

Had I not been in so much pain, I would still be a broker in London

That's the reality but the pain nudged me over the edge and I'm grateful for that

and

now actually a wise man once said that

pain sometimes

Pushes you and then the calling pulls you

and now I feel like I have a calling to you know, just go out to the world and

If I can in my own little small way touch some lives and inspire some people to think to themselves that they don't have to

Sit behind that desk. I mean if they want to sit behind that desk, that's great

But if they don't there is a way out

I mean can we made touch it on the few like key points of the long version because that way out I think is where a

Lot of people struggle and and that fear factor is I know a big one for a lot of people leaving that secure job

That one that you had as a broker

And I know that you were being drawn and that and that kind of you reach that tipping point

Can you just articulate maybe that first step?

What's the first thing you did when you said enough's enough and and what kind of forward movement did you make?

Yeah, I mean the first thing I did and again it took time

Like you said, I reached a tipping point but sometimes to get to the tipping point takes years

So I had reached that tipping point by sitting behind that desk by feeling uninspired and then the tipping point was the movie

Literally after watching the movie

Within a couple of weeks I quit my job and I'd started to plan my first journey

Which was walking across America from Times Square to the Hollywood sign

Relying on the kindness of strangers. So once the tipping point had been reached and I'd fallen off the cliff, let's say

Everything started to be put into place

That's great man. And that's a really interesting way to start

You know, you really sound like you dove right into the deep end

And you know for a lot of listeners out there who think this takes a lot of money

It doesn't especially when you're relying on the kindness of others

You can literally walk out your front door and if you're open to whatever happens

I mean the world seems to take care. Is that kind of what you experience?

Yes, and I don't want people to think that my journey was Pollyannish in the sense that it didn't always work out as planned

I didn't quit my job and then everything, you know, the heavens opened and everything worked out. It didn't

After finishing my first trip I ended up moving to Los Angeles and I started

Working in the corporate world again, not as a broker but in Hollywood

And that continued for five six years not in a particularly pleasant way for me

again, I remember walking into the office and and being very depressed and the final act in this Greek drama, let's say was

Happened in 2013

When I was walking down the street

In Hollywood and I saw this chap a homeless man with a sign that said kindness is the best medicine

And there was something about that sign that kind of reignited my passion to find my find myself and find my true life

So I quit my corporate job once and for all and I've never I've never gone back

So it's not a straight arrow up, you know life sometimes has dips often

So I don't want people to think oh, you know

It's easy for him to say that he quit his job and everything worked out didn't work out that way

Sometimes bad things happen and you just got to keep going

Absolutely

You know with the connections that you made in Hollywood was it

easier for you then to kind of move in the direction of

Producing, you know the kindness diaries and and then taking that next step to really help you get your message out there

Yes, because I had been

working in that industry and

You know for me now, there's no point in me doing something for me

This is a personal opinion that there's no point in me doing something like the kindness diaries

If no one's gonna see it because I want people to see it to be inspired to go out into their world and do something magical

That's really cool man. Thank you for doing it because I think it does touch a lot of lives and I love your introduction

you know the introduction of the kindness diaries where you talk about the fear that's put into us by the media and

And by maybe even our families our close friends about going out into other countries and

experiencing the things that

Could potentially happen, you know anywhere, but it could also happen in your backyard

Did you find as you kind of wandered around the world any of those?

False fears to maybe come true or was it always would you always find it just completely contradicting what you were encountering?

There's always moments where bad things can happen

Just because like for me the news maybe says a lot of negative things about the world

But that doesn't mean that those negative things don't happen from time to time

They do but as you said earlier you traveled the world and you saw so much kindness and so much goodness

And the majority of the time there is goodness and there is kindness, but that doesn't mean that if there's goodness and kindness

You're not going to sometimes

Come up against things that are not good because you are going to come up against things that are not good

It's not a Pollyannish world

But the majority of the time and the majority of the people that we meet and the majority of the experiences that we have

Or I talk for myself here have been highly positive

Yeah, no, I totally agree

You know I've been around the world a few times now and had very few

Experiences that were negative and the one the few negative ones I did have were in some of the most civilized societies

You know I just left Nicaragua as I told you

I'm not permanently just for a month or two and the situation is at unrest down there

you know the government has been oppressing its people for a long time and the people are rising up and

Navigating around the country is it's more difficult. Did I feel unsafe at times? Yes. Did anything happen to me? No

You know, there's always a person there who says hey come in this house now because it's not safe to be outside

I felt that there was always kind of somebody looking out

Yeah, and that's been my experience, too

Yep, so when you were navigating around the world with kindness one your your motorbike

And I noticed you noted throughout the documentaries that you're having motorcycle issues

Was there always something nearby or someplace nearby someone nearby who was able to get that thing running again

Yeah, kindness one looks good, but doesn't really run very well, which is a bit of a problem if you're trying to cross earth

But look I would always be helped and and and you know

It doesn't mean that the moment it broke down people would flock to me

No, it didn't happen that way sometimes. I'd wait hours

But ultimately it was a perfect way to connect with people because obviously as you know, it's a

Motorbike with a sidecar. It's old. It looks cool. And it's a perfect conversation starter

So people would always want to be of service

They would always want to help they would always want to know what what on earth are you doing on this?

And once you connect with someone even on the smallest of things then magic can happen

Yeah, let's talk about some of those magical moments

You know

You're obviously making this series. You have your crew kind of capturing it behind behind the scenes

Were you ever lonely? I mean were you always connecting with people?

I mean, I know you you'd show us that some nights you're you're sleeping on the beach in Thailand or because you couldn't find a place

Did you ever feel alone?

Of course, I felt alone a lot of times even though there was a crew with me

Um, I did I did feel alone and that's I think part of the human condition

And that's one of the reasons why I went out into the world to meet the world to assuage my loneliness

Because we're all human beings and human beings often feel alone

and what a beautiful way to

Defer that loneliness than by you know connecting with another human being. That's really what it's all about

That's true. I totally agree

I think though at times, you know when that loneliness strikes and and you're and you're not connecting to other human beings

There's healthy ways and unhealthy ways maybe to deal with it, you know, and unfortunately

Anthony Bourdain, you know just passed away recently at his own hands

And that loneliness seemed to envelop his being and he couldn't really escape it and didn't have maybe healthy outputs

And so i'm just always curious as you know as an individual who has experienced it like we all have

Do you have any healthy ways that you like to try to deal with that loneliness when it overcomes you?

Yeah, I mean one of the most beautiful ways is simply to connect to another human being

And one of the most profound ways of connecting with another human being is by being kind

Because when we're kind we show that other person that they matter

And when we show that other person that they matter

We feel good about ourselves

And there's that little magic between that little kind of feeling of connection that is so inspiring and so life affirming

And it's a simple act of kindness that can make us feel better and make the other person feel better. It's like a win-win

That's so true

And that was really articulated in in one of your episodes when you were in india actually the multiple episodes where you were in india

And I spent some time in india as well and was treated the exact same way as you being on the trains and meeting an indian family

Who would invite us out into the middle of nowhere to stay with them?

For free not asking for anything

And I noticed and you obviously make that clear throughout the whole series that you know for very specific

Situations you you you give you give back

and you have your own criterion which you do it, but

You know you changed a lot of lives throughout the trip by either giving you know family and their children education giving that one

Dude a tuk-tuk

Have you ever kept in touch with them and and seen how that that gift has continued to change their lives?

I have not all of them, but some of them for example the indian chap the tuk-tuk driver

I definitely stay in touch with him

He's uh when I was last in india

Uh, we spoke and he said to me mr. Leon. I want to come pick you up with my tuk-tuk

This is in delhi and you know what delhi traffic is like and I said after you please

No, no need to come pick me up on your tuk-tuk and he's like, oh mr. Leon i'm coming

I was like, okay dude

So he comes to the airport in his tuk-tuk and drives me to his house and he's he's got a new place

You know his kids are in a new school

And it's a beautiful beautiful thing

No, that's cool, man. How long was that trip that how long was it around the world? How long did it take you?

About five and a half months five and a half months and approximately how many people?

Took you in over that five and a half months was it every single night or were there kind of break nights?

Yeah, there were nights when I didn't find a place to stay

I slept in the uh, I as you know, I slept on the streets

Uh in pittsburgh. I slept in the in the sidecar of the bike

There were many moments where people didn't help and that's part of life as well

The show is not just oh a man goes around the world and everyone's kind to him. That's not what happened

Some people weren't which is okay

Yeah, absolutely. I mean people have their own lives and circumstances which

aren't always in in the best situation to help so

um

So when I just have a quick side note because I I know you went to mongolia

Um on a different trip when you drove, I think you were trying to raise what 10 000 books?

Um for children or people

And you were driving from london to mongolia. What route did you take when you uh to get to mongolia?

That's a good question. If i'm if my memory serves me correct, I went to russia

Then I went to ukraine

No, i went ukraine russia

um

kazakhstan beckistan tekmenistan

Back into kazakhstan then to mongolia

Wow, I mean those are a lot of stands there that I think as far as an american

Um, we get a lot of negative input on

Can you talk about the kind of people that you met, you know in the middle east and and what their reaction to you was

There was so much deep kindness and love

They put us up in their houses. They let us sleep in tents in their barns

I mean, I remember I was in Uzbekistan

And uh got lost and I went up to I was with a friend at this time

We did the journey together and I went up to uh this guy and I told him I was lost

He didn't understand me. He said don't worry. Hold on in his language. I will get a friend

I realized what he was saying the friend understood

They invited us to have dinner with them. Then they invited us to sleep in their barn in our tent

You know, it was it was just beautiful. They're just human beings. They're just like us. They're just like you. They're just like me

They're the same

There's no difference. I mean, that's what I find so

um

Challenging about watching the news and reading the newspapers and oh they're different

No, they're not

You're right

and I think you know as you articulated many times throughout this conversation, you know that connection and striving to make that connection

Is where we all come to common ground?

and

I think that you know, sometimes myself

You know be standing on the wall at a party and and looking at the crowd and not even knowing it

But you know judging the whole situation or people within that crowd and and not really making the effort to connect and try to understand

Them and the shoes that they're walking in and then that separation is created where then I lose

I lose that opportunity to make that connection and possibly a new friend

And I think that a lot of people out there might feel the same way that I do and and it it comes down to really I think

You know putting your hand out or opening your arms. I love how you hug everybody throughout the whole series

After they they give you the the green light to come stay with them. I think that's really cool

Yeah

And I don't know why that started to happen, but it did and now I hug everyone

That's really great, man. Um, you're uh

Going back to mongolia. I had one more question about that when you were in mongolia. Did you culturally find that?

um

To be very aggressive place because when I was there I found it to be extremely aggressive

In what sense?

um

Well, I was living on the streets in ulaanbaatar and obviously subjecting myself to a different type of

Situation and yeah, there was a lot of violence around me a lot of um, obviously poverty and stuff and just found myself feeling

tremendously

unsafe at most times how did you find that I

I mean I in mongolia. I wasn't living on the streets. So I don't I didn't experience that. I I

experienced mongolia is as specifically outside of the main cities as

Beautiful and very very kind half of people but obviously when you go into the centers, um

There is a lot more poverty and there's a lot more alcohol abuse

So I can imagine that uh, there would be a little it would be a little bit more challenging

Yeah, there was you know a circumstance in which we obviously chose to subject ourselves to and

I mean, I still had an amazing time and we were taken in by

A family, um in ulaanbaatar who let us stay with them actually for a whole month

I mean, that's the kind of kindness that I know you've experienced and I experienced as well. It was incredible

I mean, I really appreciated my time there but definitely felt uh, it's probably the most stressful country

I ever found myself in just due to the the situations that we were we were subjecting ourselves to

what um

What kind of adventures do you have planned on the horizon?

Are you going to continue on with kindness diary kind of stuff?

Yeah, I actually just came back

Uh filming season two of the show. I drove a 50 year old car

from alaska to argentina

That's awesome. You passed right by me in nicaragua, dude. You should have come by

Yeah. Yeah, if I'd known if I'd known you were there I would have

Um, what kind of hobbies do you have?

I mean, I I know traveling is obviously one of them

But do you have anything that you like to do actively or what do you do when you're not traveling?

Uh planning my next travel

Cool and playing ping pong. Oh nice dude. Um, have you always been an avid ping-pong player?

You know, yeah, I used to I used to play ping-pong as a kid

Um, do you know the rules of ping-pong?

Yeah, I mean you'd have to refresh my memory. I haven't played in a few years

Okay, so it's first to 21 and I remember my lowest moment in the ping-pong world was

I was beating my brother 4-0 in sets

2010

And I lost 5-4

Ooh

How on earth is that possible? Oh we could go deep on that, you know as I as a former athlete

You know that mental side of the game is so important

Yeah, I just I just crumbled. Do you hold the paddle like on the chinese do or do you hold it the western way?

The western way. Okay when I was living in china, I learned the chinese way and I can't go back

I I hold it that way for me. It's so much easier for for me to get my back hand going that way

That's cool

Um, that's really cool, man. Um, so this is your full-time job now

I mean you make a living off of the kindness diaries and I know you have books out there on amazon

You got the kindness diaries live lit. What is it live love explore?

Amazing adventures of nobody the mojo diaries. Um, these are all various income streams that you have in order to sustain your lifestyle

Yeah, basically also give speeches

So I give speeches at schools and then businesses about kindness

It's quite extraordinary to think that I used to be a broker and

You know, I always loved kindness because I know how it changed my life and here I am

Kind of by some fluke of nature

found myself living off travel and kindness where I get to travel the world

And meet people and experience their kindness. It's just quite extraordinary

It is and just to give the audience and myself a little perspective

I mean were you using seed money from you know, your broker days or did you go out and pitch this to

Potential investors to help get this off the ground

To start with I used the money that I had made as a broker and then as I continued people started to you know

To fund the projects

That's cool. Have you ever had any aspirations to I know you're not an actor and this is all very real

But did you ever have any aspirations to put yourself in this kind of situation and be like the host of a show?

Um, not really but to some degree. Yes. I mean I first started doing this

uh, I had I did a show for the discovery channel, maybe

randomly like

12 13 years ago and I liked it

So I was like wow. All right, that was actually because remember I told you I gave you the short version not a long version

Yeah, that was actually whilst I was still a broker

My my my girlfriend's sister called me up one day and I was in the office and she said

I think you'd do great in this hosting gig and I said to what are you talking about? I'm at work

She's like trust me just come I said, uh, you know, I'll come tomorrow. She's like you can't come tomorrow

This is the last day of auditions and I was like, all right, I'll come

So I came and I got this job and I was like, oh, all right

So I took some time off my work and went and did this it only took a week or two

But that's kind of how it started

I see

It's funny. Yeah, the twists and turns that life throws at us

but it's great it's great that you embraced it and you've continued to move forward in

A direction that now it sounds like you're shaping your life more in the way that you want with the whole kindness

Perspective and really connecting with people. I like that a lot dude. Congratulations

Yeah, absolutely. You know what I tell people sometimes I say to them think about when you're 96 years old

And then you're you're you know, your time is up and you look back at your life and you think to yourself

And you know deep in your heart that you haven't lived

Think how you're going to feel

That you wasted

96 years of your life your only life by doing what other people wanted you to do

Um, don't be that 96 year old

Amen brother. That's exactly how i've always made decisions too

You know, i'd rather be on my deathbed looking back saying that I tried, you know

Rather than not trying and and regretting it

So I definitely find a connection in what you just said right there and how I am motivated to

Jump into situations that i'm definitely not comfortable in

Do you know there's a great song by one republic called I lived

Uh, I would suggest you and anyone listening to this, uh, go to itunes and listen to that song

One republic I lived that

That will inspire you to to really

Not become the 96 year old

I'll do that. I'll put that in the show notes for everybody to go back and uh check out after they listen to your episode

Um, well, that's really cool leon. I think that you know, how how is it now living in la?

I mean the contrast of what you do and then being in

Man, i'd say the most one of the most unique cities in the world just because of hollywood and how people

Are all flocking there and how they respond to it is isn't you what what kind of lessons are you learning from that kind of contrast?

Well, the first lesson i'm learning is that if you are born in england, you always like the sun

I would move to los angeles because every day is sunny. So it makes me happy. I feel like i'm

On holiday every day

um

on a on a grander scale, I would say

Sometimes to be put in a situation where you go out into the world and you meet and you connect and

Kindness touches your life in a beautiful way and then you're put into a situation where the place you live

Is not renowned for its kindness. It makes you

I think a little bit more grateful a little bit have a little bit more perspective

um

And uh, yeah, I think that's the main thing that I learned from living in la

Yeah, no, I can I can connect with that and southern california is a little bubble and

People always ask me, you know, what's the strangest place you've ever been for me?

it's newport beach california where I grew up and I just it's so unique in the way, um people operate people think and

No, no judgment passed. It's not negative positive. Whatever. It's just I I don't connect with it, which is why I live in nicaragua

um

You know one thing I want to touch upon before we kind of close out here is there is something you said where

You you had in the beginning this feeling of guilt for asking for help

Which I experienced standing on the side of the road waiting, you know to get picked up with my thumb out in the air and

I always felt really uncomfortable about that

Can you maybe go into a little bit of that feeling for the audience and and what what you think where that derived from?

Sure, you know we live in a society whereby we're told don't ask for help

Asking for help is weak

Um, and certainly don't ask for help from someone who you know may have less than you that's

That's not good. Like people sometimes say to me. Oh, you know what?

How dare you go to india or these poor countries and ask people for help? What's wrong with you?

And and and uh, I turn around very kindly very gently and I say well

Are you saying that I can only ask people for help who have money?

And for the for those that don't have money I must say you don't have money so therefore you cannot help me

You missed the point if you do that because helping people has got nothing to do with how much or how little you have

It's got to do with how big your heart is and how connected you are to your humanity

so

that guilt

is not there anymore because

As you remember from the the indian story the guy wanted me to sleep in his bed whilst him and his pregnant wife slept

On the floor and I remember saying to him. I said dearie. That's not going to happen

It's not happening and he turned around to me. He says guest is god

And in that moment had I said no to him

It would have been

I would have been upsetting him

So really when you ask for help, you're just opening up your own humanity and and connecting with another human being

Yeah, and and by you being there and accepting that you're fulfilling him with that sort of

fulfillment of knowing that he's doing something kind for somebody else which is

Is a gift in itself and I always felt feel like it's a two-way street

You know, even though I sat out there with my thumb thumb out trying to get a ride

You know the second, you know, I got in that car it was

Kind of expected that you know, I was there to create conversation and help the driver, you know not be so bored

So I felt like it was kind of a two-way street when I was asking for help as well

Yes, exactly. Exactly. We we just live in this world. It's so

Materialistic and so it's so much based on materialism that we have forgotten our connection to the divine

To nature to each other and I want in some small way the kindness diaries to inspire people to remember that

Beautifully said if you could just maybe sign off with an inspirational saying a quote something that's going to really inspire maybe that person

Driving right now in the 405 to la

To the job that they're not that psyched on the life situation. They aren't finding very fulfilling

Maybe could you give us something to close with that might inspire them and take that first step out of that life situation

I would say never never give up on your dreams and remember the great englishman Winston Churchill

He once said never never never give up

That would be my suggestion for you today and for the rest of your life. Keep on going

Well, thank you. Leon. I really appreciate your time folks

You can check him out on the kindness diaries on netflix or just google it leon. You're badass. We love you

Thank you so much for joining us

Thank you for having me

Thank you again for joining me for yet another episode of miss bits and rejects. Leon is doing some really rad work

Please check him out on netflix the kindness diaries really appreciate his time and remember if you want to support miss bits and rejects

You can do it on patreon.com

Backslash miss fits and rejects any donation is helpful

If you can't donate all good, please just share miss bits and rejects with a friend

You think it might inspire to maybe take that first step out into whatever life they are hoping to design for themselves

And with that said, I think you're also very beautiful

Ciao, thank you for listening to miss bits and rejects. I hope this inspire you to think about your life situation where you're at

possibly make a big decision to

Choose something different for yourself if you're unhappy with where you're at in life

I hope these people that I interview inspire you to go out spread your wings and try something new

to live a different lifestyle that maybe your whole life people were telling me was the wrong one, but

When in fact it it's the perfect one for you

And i'll see you next time

You